Portland has chosen 17 parks as sites for residents and those trained in disaster skills to gather in the event of an emergency

View full sizeJULIA SILVERMAN, SPECIAL TO THE OREGONIANSigns in 17 city parks urge residents to gather there to receive help from trained volunteers in the event of an emergency.

When the massive, magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit off the Pacific coast of eastern Japan on March 11, residents of surrounding towns and cities streamed into local parks, seeking help and solace in equal parts.

It makes sense: Parks are open spaces, free of towering buildings and power lines that could collapse, and are natural gathering points for a scarred and scared community.

New signs are up at 17 parks around the city, informing Portlanders that in the event of an emergency, local residents who have received training in disaster response skills will try to congregate at that site and begin helping their friends and neighbors.

The idea for the signs first came from Ethan Jewett, the Neighborhood Emergency Team leader for the Woodlawn neighborhood in Northeast Portland.

"One of the things I have done in the last few years is to walk around in the summer months and talk to neighbors who are out in their yard, and I have realized that a lot of people aren't thinking about earthquakes or any other disasters in Portland," Jewett said. "After all, a hurricane didn't just barely miss us two years ago -- there is not the immediacy and close shaves that people live with in other parts of the country."

Warning signs

Parks where the new emergency signs can be found include:

Col. Summers Park, Southeast Portland

Wallace Park, Northwest Portland

Arbor Lodge Park, North Portland

Lents Park, Southeast Portland

Woodlawn Park, Northeast Portland

Wilshire Park, Northeast Portland

Multnomah Center, Southwest Portland

Gabriel Park, Southwest Portland,

Montavilla Park, Southeast Portland

Sellwood Park, Southeast Portland

St. Johns Community Center, North Portland

Brentwood Park, Southeast Portland

Kern Park, Southeast Portland

Essex Park, Southeast Portland

Woodstock Park, Southeast Portland

Knott Park, Northeast Portland

Dickinson Park, Southwest Portland

Jewett had watched events unfold in Japan, and figured that local parks are a constant in people's lives, from walking their dogs to playing with their kids to seeing concerts in the summertime. So what better place, he figured, to put up signs letting residents know that in the event of an emergency, neighborhood responses could begin in their local park?

"Parks are a safe, open area where people can congregate, and can reunify with family members," she said. "They are not in floodplain areas, there don't tend to be steep slopes, there are no buildings or poles or overhead lines. We wanted to identify these locations in the event of an emergency, so people get a sense of where they can go for a safe environment."

About 1,000 people in the Portland area are NET volunteers, Merlo said, which means that they've gone through a basic training course in emergency preparedness and response techniques. In the event of a major earthquake or other disaster, NET members would canvass neighborhoods, helping to extinguish small fires, turn off natural gas at damaged homes, perform light search-and-rescue, render basic medical treatment and communicate with city leaders via amateur radio systems -- but first, they'd congregate in the designated meeting sites to regroup and come up with a plan.

"There is no city in the world that can afford to have the amount of professional responders sitting around on the off chance that we are going to have this big disaster," Jewett said. "The professional resources that a city can afford to have on hand will be overwhelmed within minutes. The reality is that 60 to 80 percent of first aid and rescue is all done by our neighbors."

Ideally, he said, NET members will take "visual snapshots" as they make their way to the park staging areas; once there, they'd be matched up with other residents who may lack official training but want to pitch in with rescue efforts.

The new signs are just one in a series of ongoing earthquake preparedness efforts under way in Portland, Merlo said. In the next few weeks, city officials hope to release an updated earthquake plan for public comment; it will be available for review on the bureau's website at http://www.portlandonline.com/oem/.

And she and Jewett both urged residents to make sure they have at least a three-day stockpile of food, water and other basic necessities on hand, as well as an agreed-upon plan on how to reach loved ones and where to meet up in the event of a disaster.